Sunday, November 24, 2013

Embracing Fall

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With Thanksgiving Day right around the corner, today I am planting both feet firmly in FALL and embracing football games, apple cider, chili on the stove, bread in the oven, and an awesome counted canvaswork Laura J Perin design to help me celebrate everything I adore about Fall...



 
 
Turning Leaves
on 18ct canvas


I wish I knew why Blogger is failing to upload so many of my reasonably sized pics, but alas, I am not a techie, so you'll just have to trust me -- it's beautiful!  :-)  I've only just started it, so there isn't much to see in my progress but it does seem to be going quickly.

To all my fellow Fall lovers:  Dig in my friends!  As you know, come Friday, Christmas spirit commercialism will be EVERYWHERE.  Take a few deep breaths of that crisp autumn air and give thanks for all the blessings you and yours have enjoyed this past year. 

Wishing you all an attitude of gratitude.  Happy FALL!





Sunday, November 17, 2013

Seminar Summary 2013

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This year, the EGA national seminar slogan was "Winner by a Stitch" and boy-o-boy did I feel like a winner by the end of the week!

For starters, let me back up and say that earlier this year, I purchased a few opportunity tickets for a quilt drawing.  And....since my sister has all the luck o' the Irish, I put her name on my tickets (I know, I know, shame on me...).  She (aka "I") won.  The quilt is phenomenal in design, piecing and quilting.  I am extremely fortunate to have it and will treasure it forever more.



Fast forward one month and I see this spectacular quilt at the EGA seminar:



It was not for sale or auction; you could only purchase chances for it.  I thought, "What the heck"... even though I knew there was absolutely NO WAY I'd win another quilt this year, it couldn't hurt to try.  Right?  Right!!  And, would you believe they pulled my name out of the hat?  Talk about stunned!  I didn't even hi-jack my sister's identity to win it.  Just to gild the lily, it came with a big-ol'-bag of taffy from a 50 year old candy shoppe in Oregon.  YUM YUM YUM!

With all the quilt-flaunting I had to do, I'm glad the drawing was held on the final evening of the convention.  Even though I only took one class, Catherine Jordan's River Bottom box, I took full advantage of having some down time:


Believe it or not, I finished (or nearly finished) all of the above during my time in Louisville.  I can't remember the last time I had five finishes in a single month!
 
I even had time to start this adorable Lizzie Kate fall/halloween biscornu which I just finished today:
 
 
 

And just for good measure, I finished another Christmas ornament this past week while on vacation in Washington D.C.
 



So with jsut about five weeks left until Christmas, I hope you all are finding time to finish a few gifts and maybe even a few keepers... :o)

Have a great week, friends!